TechCentralTechCentral
    Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentral TechCentral
    NEWSLETTER
    • News

      State capture probe ends but South Africa remains ‘broken’ by corruption

      23 June 2022

      Vivica Group, formerly Vox, looks beyond ICT

      23 June 2022

      Protests break out at Eskom plants

      23 June 2022

      South Africa scraps public mask mandate

      23 June 2022

      Crypto is not too big to fail

      23 June 2022
    • World

      Crypto crash survivors could become ‘tomorrow’s Amazons’

      23 June 2022

      Tether to launch a stablecoin tied to the British pound

      22 June 2022

      Tech giants form metaverse standards body, without Apple

      22 June 2022

      There are still unresolved matters in Twitter deal, Musk says

      21 June 2022

      5G subscriptions to top one billion in 2022: Ericsson

      21 June 2022
    • In-depth

      The great crypto crash: the fallout, and what happens next

      22 June 2022

      Goodbye, Internet Explorer – you really won’t be missed

      19 June 2022

      Oracle’s database dominance threatened by rise of cloud-first rivals

      13 June 2022

      Everything Apple announced at WWDC – in less than 500 words

      7 June 2022

      Sheryl Sandberg’s ad empire leaves a complicated legacy

      2 June 2022
    • Podcasts

      How your organisation can triage its information security risk

      22 June 2022

      Everything PC S01E06 – ‘Apple Silicon’

      15 June 2022

      The youth might just save us

      15 June 2022

      Everything PC S01E05 – ‘Nvidia: The Green Goblin’

      8 June 2022

      Everything PC S01E04 – ‘The story of Intel – part 2’

      1 June 2022
    • Opinion

      Has South Africa’s advertising industry lost its way?

      21 June 2022

      Rob Lith: What Icasa’s spectrum auction means for SA companies

      13 June 2022

      A proposed solution to crypto’s stablecoin problem

      19 May 2022

      From spectrum to roads, why fixing SA’s problems is an uphill battle

      19 April 2022

      How AI is being deployed in the fight against cybercriminals

      8 April 2022
    • Company Hubs
      • 1-grid
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Amplitude
      • Atvance Intellect
      • Axiz
      • BOATech
      • CallMiner
      • Digital Generation
      • E4
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • IBM
      • Kyocera Document Solutions
      • Microsoft
      • Nutanix
      • One Trust
      • Pinnacle
      • Skybox Security
      • SkyWire
      • Tarsus on Demand
      • Videri Digital
      • Zendesk
    • Sections
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud computing
      • Consumer electronics
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Energy
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Motoring and transport
      • Public sector
      • Science
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home»Opinion»Duncan McLeod»E.tv bid could delay digital migration

    E.tv bid could delay digital migration

    Duncan McLeod By Duncan McLeod19 April 2015
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email

    Duncan-McLeod-180-profileJust as South Africa’s broadcasting digital migration project looked to be making solid progress for the first time in years, one of the protagonists in the long-running war over the encryption of TV signals is unleashing its lawyers, potentially setting the process back by months, even years.

    Feeling aggrieved by a reversal in government policy, e.tv said this week that it was challenging communications minister Faith Muthambi’s final policy on digital migration in the high court.

    The move comes as the government’s Universal Service & Access Agency of South Africa is gearing up to sign contracts with the successful bidders for the supply of the set-top boxes and aerials that will be provided free to five million poorer households.

    The pieces are now mostly in place for commercial digital TV broadcasts to begin. Sentech has built the signal distribution network and the agency, barring any last-minute political meddling in the process, looks set to kick set-top manufacturing into high gear. Although it’s been terrible at communicating its decisions, by most accounts (but not all) the agency has run a fair process.

    But it can’t move ahead until there is finality on whether the subsidised boxes will need a conditional access system (necessary to receive encrypted signals). Muthambi’s decision last month that encryption would not be included in government-subsidised set-top boxes — a reversal from government’s previous policy in this regard — is a victory for MultiChoice, which has argued that it would amount to an unfair subsidy to prospective pay-TV broadcasters.

    E.tv, on the other hand, warns that signal encryption is crucial to preventing the free-to-air broadcasting sector from becoming “ghettoised”, saying content providers increasingly require it to supply broadcasters with the best content in high definition.

    There are other reasons MultiChoice and e.tv advance to support their positions, but this is the essence of their disagreement.

    MultiChoice recently pointed out that the set-top box specification developed by the South African Bureau of Standards requires that the boxes include high-bandwidth digital content protection (better known as HDCP), which encrypts the signal sent from the box over an HDMI cable to a TV set. E.tv says the signal itself needs to be encrypted to satisfy the demands of the content industry.

    The industry is divided over whether encryption is warranted. So, too, is the ANC. Indeed, it’s widely believed that former communications minister Yunus Carrim was fired — and the communications department split in two — as lobbying and influence peddling reached the highest levels in government.

    At stake is the R4bn-plus that the government intends to spend on providing free set-top boxes. But it’s threatening to tear — no, has already torn — the broadcasting and electronics manufacturing sectors apart.

    The animosity between MultiChoice and e.tv, serious as it is, resembles something of a playground squabble next to the vicious war that’s broken out between former allies in the emerging black electronics manufacturing industry.

    Allegations of criminality, by both sides, have become commonplace. It’s a mess that could even end up causing the broadcasters reputational damage, especially MultiChoice.

    Faith Muthambi
    Faith Muthambi

    MultiChoice is already under fire over a dodgy channel supply agreement with the SABC that prevents the public broadcaster from encrypting its signals, among other things. MultiChoice will surely want to avoid its image being tarnished further.

    Now e.tv is headed to court, asking that “aspects” of Muthambi’s final policy be reviewed. It argues that Muthambi acted unlawfully, but in the process it risks being demonised for holding up the digital TV process.

    Indeed, even though e.tv has asked that the matter be dealt with urgently by the court, it’s hard to shake off the view that the broadcaster is putting a gun to government’s head to advance its own narrow commercial interests.

    Getting on with migration — the main purpose of which is freeing up spectrum for wireless broadband — must surely be the overriding goal of everyone at this late stage of the process.

    • Duncan McLeod is editor of TechCentral. Find him on Twitter
    • This column was first published in the Sunday Times
    DStv Duncan McLeod e.tv Faith Muthambi MultiChoice Sentech Usaasa Yunus Carrim
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Previous ArticleTech giants now dictate music’s future
    Next Article Europe goes after Google

    Related Posts

    Has South Africa’s advertising industry lost its way?

    21 June 2022

    Everything PC S01E06 – ‘Apple Silicon’

    15 June 2022

    Rob Lith: What Icasa’s spectrum auction means for SA companies

    13 June 2022
    Add A Comment

    Comments are closed.

    Promoted

    Huawei P50 now available for pre-order in South Africa

    23 June 2022

    Calabrio paves way for SA’s cloud contact centre WFO journey alongside AWS

    23 June 2022

    More than card machines – iKhokha diversifies to reach more SMEs

    22 June 2022
    Opinion

    Has South Africa’s advertising industry lost its way?

    21 June 2022

    Rob Lith: What Icasa’s spectrum auction means for SA companies

    13 June 2022

    A proposed solution to crypto’s stablecoin problem

    19 May 2022

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2022 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.